The best Mouse and Mousepad for CS:GO

21 October 2016 — csgocoach

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There is no setting that would re-compensate you for a lack of a good mouse or the incorrect use of it. Nowadays, ever brand is trying to assure you that they are selling a gaming mouse which has everything you need. Highlighted big numbers like 16000 DPI or 15750 CPI are all over the place, along with things like Polling Rate, customizable buttons or macros. The question is, do we really need it? I will tell you all about it in a second and you will decide yourself. Let’s start with some common questions.

What are DPI and CPI?

DPI stands for “Dots per inch” and CPI stands for “Counts per inch”. Simply put, they are the same thing: just with the technical correction. Both are the responsible measurement of how sensitive our mouse is. A mouse with a higher DPI setting detects and reacts to smaller movements. A higher DPI will automatically set faster cursor movement which might complicate setting up in-game sensitivity. In theory, high DPI combined with low sensitivity in-game and high resolution should be the perfect setting for fps gaming. Unlikely to achieve that high CPI, mouse developers had to split pixel to several virtual pixels which causes lots of errors and mouses to be inaccurate. The higher resolution you play, the bigger CPI you can set(although we do not recommend going higher than 1600.

What is Polling Rate?

This option tells us how often your mouse reports its position to a computer. The higher polling rate we set, the less delay we will get. The amount of Hz indicates the amount of reports per second to send to the computer. Let’s say that we are playing on a 125Hz polling rate. This will give us around 8ms delay. Nowadays, a common pulling rate is 500Hz or 1000Hz, which is 2ms or 1ms delay between reports and it is considered as the best option. You may ask, why not 1000Hz? Why do some people play on 500Hz? These are really small differences between both and the higher polling rate slightly increases CPU usage. Mostly, it’s all down to your computer performance and personal opinion.

Do we need Mouse macros and customizable buttons?

When it comes to Counter-strike: Global Offensive, we don’t really need many extra buttons. This is an absolutely personal matter and if you feel that some key bindings feel more comfortable on mouse, go for it! Remember that there are no rules when it comes to key binding. You need to set what is best for you and we can only point out the most common choices which people make. That does not always mean it will be best for you. Macros are great for some games but not for the FPS game type. I know there is a lot of macros which can assist you while shooting, controlling your spray pattern or making you spam bullets with a pistol (like from uzi). I bet it’s great and super easy to play with that kind of macros but keep in mind that this kind of assistance is considered as cheating and not allowed on most CS: GO Tournaments. Ask yourself: do you want to play the game and improve your skills or you want your computer to play for you?

Which mouse is best for CS: GO?

As we already mentioned above, CPI, Polling Rate or any other marketing illusion should not trick us into buying the mouse. Th most important part for you should be how your mouse feels in your hand and if it is big or small enough for you. The rest of it is really irrelevant and not worth extra attention. Of course, there are companies which are highly popular for their top quality parts and best designs. These are a few of them to put you on the right track: Logitech, SteelSeries, Zowie, Razer and Corsair.

Which is the best Mousepad type?

Right away I can state that there is no best mousepad or worst mousepad type. Basically, we have two types of mouse pads and which is better is again more of a personal preference over the theoretical aspect. The first type is called “control” or “soft” because it is made more of a matt like and an adhesive surface. This greatly enhances the precision and tactile response of mice. It is mostly recommended for players with higher sensitivity in-game to be able to stay in control of small hand movements.
The second type is called “speed” or “hard” which is mostly made of really slick and smooth surface. Thanks to that, our movement speed enhances and accelerates. It is mostly recommended for players with lower sensitivity in-game to help them throw that huge hand moves with easy and great speed.
Many CS: GO Pro players use a hard pad on top of the soft pad to make it a bit more consistent. It is definitely something worth trying but it’s not a must-have or a must-do sort of thing. Only if you are planning to play in tournaments or other type of LANs really often it might become handy. Simply because this big soft pad will work as well as part of your desk, your hand will feel like it is on the same surface no matter if are you home or on LAN. Thanks to that, you won’t have to get used to new a place/desk and skip that whole adaptation to surroundings sort of thing.

Which sensitivity is the best?

In-game mouse sensitivity often gets people really confused. A lot of Pro Counter-Strike players are playing on super low sensitivity which is questioned a lot by newcomers or players from other fps games. The reason for it is really simple. Counter-Strike is a shooter game in which we are mostly aware of our enemy positioning and rarely can we get backstabbed. Thanks to that, we can lower our sensitivity to the point where a full mousepad swipe will give us 180 degrees. Lower your sensitivity and you will get more precise shots and you will be able to perform at long distances and slightly slower and less responsive reactions at close distances.

Many players are seeing the “180 degrees mousepad swipe” rule as the best sensitivity for CS: GO and they are not wrong but there is a bit more to it. An additional factor which will change your sensitivity is your role in the team: if you are one of the frag-opening players for example. Your sensitivity might go up a bit so you can check all corners and be more responsive to uncommon plays/positions. When your role is the second rifler or support player you can let yourself lower your sensitivity even more only because you will enter in most cases with information where the enemy is positioned and you will be able to pre-aim that spot.

The last important thing which can affect your performance on certain sensitivity is your dexterity. There are some people who are born with that surgeon’s steady and precise hand. They will do extremely well on high sensitivities even at long distances without breaking a sweat. That’s why we do not recommend you trying to copy sensitivity from pro players or whichever “magic recipe” for perfect sensitivity. Your sensitivity has to be adjusted according to you, your role in the team and you need to spend lots hours on the same sensitivity to get muscle memory working properly.

The best mouse settings for CS: GO?

There are many preferences and different ways to approach this. We will provide you settings which will let you stay consistent and safe if you are changing your surroundings a lot, going to LAN parties or tournaments.

Raw Input

This setting is accessible to us in option tab called “keyboard / mouse” and turning that on will simply prevent any windows settings to affect your in-game sensitivity. This will help you achieve the same sensitivity no matter which settings had player which played before you on same PC. Beyond having same sensitivity on tournaments this will as well prevent us from packet discrepancy. According to the mouse-sensitivity.com and tests which they made using raw input causes the smallest discrepancy.